College combines adult basic, developmental ed

Published 6:00 pm, Thursday, February 5, 2009

When Lynda Webb starts her new position as Midland College's dean of adult and developmental education Feb. 21, she'll be one of the few in the state with that job.

MC is combining adult and developmental education because students in both segments have similar needs. The merger also is meant to ease the transition of students from Cogdell Learning Center, where many learn English or earn their GED.

Research has shown adult education students share similar abilities and challenges to developmental, or remedial, students.

A $2.8 million federal Hispanic Serving Institutions grant announced in October 2008 also is going to be used to bolster student success.

"We're going to increase the intensity to get them ready to go to college. Many times a GED is not enough to make you college ready," Webb said.

With the college for eight years, Webb previously served as director of adult basic education and an English reading instructor. A former executive director of Keep Odessa Beautiful and longtime recycler, she received a bachelor's in journalism from Baylor University and master's degree in creative writing from the University of Texas at El Paso, her hometown. She has taken additional graduate classes at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

Midland College Vice President of Instruction Rex Peebles said creating the dean's position was his idea. "It's pretty unusual," to combine adult basic and developmental education because of the way they are funded, he said. "In some sense, it's a grand experiment to see if can make it more efficient for students to get through college at a quicker pace and better prepared."

Like GED students, adult education participants are not traditional learners. "They stop their education and go to work or have an adventure in their life and realize education is going to mean more money, a better job and self fulfillment."

MC has 538 students per semester in its adult basic education program. The GED program has 1,000 students annually.

Webb said she's found 75 percent say they want to go to college, but students have to learn academic language, adjust to college schedules, the curriculum and testing. She said the college is working closely with Midland Independent Schoool District to make students academically ready for the rigors of college.

The economy also is causing people to come back to academia for retraining or degrees. Webb said she started off the year nearly begging GED students to come to class, but with the volatility in the oil and gas industry, she's registering 50 students a week. "Those students are realizing education is where they need to be," she said.

"We have to give them the tools to understand what the college is asking and the ability to understand the academic language of college. … A GED student is willing to persist because he realizes he needs that education to move on," said Webb, who spent last summer at the Kellogg Institute in Boone, N.C., with 44 other adult educators.

Texas is not alone in having students unprepared for college, she said. "It's a nationwide problem," Webb said.

- Every four minutes a child drops out of school. Every year, one in three young adults - more than 1.2 million people - drop out of high school. Many high school graduates who do complete high school lack basic skills and readiness for job training and college.

- About 2 million immigrants come to the U.S. each year seeking jobs and better lives. About 50 percent of them have low literacy levels and lack high school education and English language skills.

- In the counties making up House District 82 - which includes Midland County, there are 21,587 adults without a high school diploma.

- There are 44,460 people in the district that speak another language besides English at home, or who do not speak English at all.

- In 2006-2007, 92 percent of students enrolled in adult basic education programs had less than a ninth-grade education and 34 percent of the adults were 16-21 years old and 46 percent of adults were 25-59 years old.

- Midland College's adult basic education program currently serves more than 700 adults.

- In 2007-2008, MC Adult Basic Education's program taught English to more than 600 adults who have emigrated to five continents.

- The National Center for Policy Analysis in a Feb. 12, 2007 report found that "each of Texas' estimated 119,000 annual dropouts costs the state about $3,168 every year for the rest of their lives. The $3,168 includes incarceration, welfare, Medicaid benefits, food stamps and other things.